Special thanks to Netgalley and Tor for gifting me an early copy of this book. Below you'll find my honest review.

This is one of those series that, even though each book is actually pretty dang short at around 200 pages, still hits hard with emotional depth. We continue the story of Antsy, girl from the store that holds the lost things and main character of the last book, Lost in the Moment and Found. She has found her way to Eleanor's school, and has started to settle in... so of course, people find out about her gift of being able to find almost anything, and some want to take advantage of it and use her to find their Doors. Hi-jinks ensue and it's a fantastic tale, hopping through multiple worlds, and with a twist at the end that makes me both happy *and* sad.

All in all, yet another fantastic entry into this series, that you should definitely read... but start at the beginning, please. Highly recommended for fairy tale lovers, YA lovers, and adventure lovers, and of course, for all fans of McGuire's works.

Mislaid In Parts Half Known by Seanan McGuire

This is a fantastic Wayward Children novella!!

I love Seanan McGuire’s writing. (Note: I review a bunch of her books so I am copying part of some of my other reviews here to save time.). She has quickly become my favorite living writer and I feel very lucky that she is so prolific. I was first introduced to her work when her book Parasite, written as Mira Grant, was nominated for a Hugo Award. I loved it and quickly devoured the Newsflesh series before I realized that Mira Grant and Seanan McGuire were the same person.

I started reading her works under her own name, starting with Sparrow Hill Road, which is amazing, but I picked it because I was intimidated by her long running October Daye series. I had read some Urban Fantasy before, and I fondly remember Mercedes Lackey’s Diana Tregarde books, but my tastes run more to science fiction and then secondary world fantasy, so I was hesitant to dive into such a long series. I picked up the first book, Rosemary and Rue, when it was on sale as a kindle daily deal, and I found it somewhat disappointing compared to her other work. I reminded myself that it was her first published novel, so I cut it some slack. Then Incryptid was nominated for the Best Series Hugo in 2018 and I dove into that instead. I loved it! So I vowed to give Toby another chance. And I was so glad that I did! It is no one of my favorite series.

I was already a big fan of Ms. McGuire’s when the first wayward children book, Every Heart a Doorway, came out, and I loved it! As a kid who grew up loving the Oz series and resenting the Christian imagery in Narnia, it was right up my alley. It is a wonderful book and this is an excellent series, definitely deserving of its Best Series Hugo win. In this series, the odd numbered books are the main timeline, and the even numbered books tell stories outside the main timeline - sometimes introducing us to new characters when they travel through their Doors, and other times showing up backstory of preexisting characters.

I was overjoyed when tordotcom and NetGalley awarded me an eARC of Mislaid In Parts Half Known. I have been hoping for eARCs of the wayward children books every year and this year I was finally lucky enough to get one!

This story starts with Antsy, who was introduced in the last volume, and follows her story at the school. The adventure (that’s not a spoiler, is it? Surely not) ropes in perennial favorites Sumi, Kade, Christopher, and Cora. There is a decent amount of world hopping in this book, and my only complaint is that it was too short! I know this is a series of novellas, but this volume, like several of the previous ones, feels so restricted by its length. I feel like this story could have easily been told in a 300-509 page novel and then we would’ve gotten more insights into the characters’ feelings and motivations.

But that is a minor, minor quibble. This was another amazing entry in this series and I cannot wait to devour the next one!

Thanks to NetGalley and Tor for this eARC.

These books still slap! This one is at the school/on a quest with the members of the squad who are still around the school. Know that though there are dinos here, that is a smaller part of this book than the cover would suggest. Antsy's story is most important to this one (this is a direct continuation of what was happening in the last book plus some other plot threads from Cora, Kade, Christopher, Sumi, and the rest of the group) and really grapples with what it looks like to let someone make her own choices with all of the information available to her.

I'm obviously in forever with these books, but as some reviewers have noted, this volume did begin to feel as though Seanan is winding up some of her outstanding threads.

Like most of the books in this series, it was a pretty quick read. The books where the group goes together on adventures are not really my favorite. I tend to prefer the origin stories. This seemed like a good continuation of Antsy's origin book, which I had previously enjoyed. It definitely delved deeper into the nuances of the doors, how they work and more importantly, the cost of using them. The book did feel a bit meandering at some points, it wasn't always clear exactly what the plot of this was but it was still an interesting read. Very interested to see who's story we pick up on next, though.

I love the books were the kids travel together through several worlds on one of those forbidden quests!! We get to see several worlds in this one, including one with dinosaurs as the cover implies, as well as some we already know. I enjoy reading the new book in this series every year to revisit some of my favorite characters and learn more about all the worlds behind the doors! I would love to visit Christopher's world soon!! These series will be fantastic for your reluctant HS readers - they are short and packed with world building and action.